Paul Douglas, GOP meteorologist who believes global warming is happening and must be addressed with business solutions, alternative energy and the creation of jobs...and according to Rush, Sean, Rick, Mitt and Newt, needs to be excommunicated, stripped of his earthly possessions, flogged in a public square and then burned as the heretical witch that he must be...oh, and he's probably a socialist too...

As any who check this site with any regularity are sure to know, my politics run to the left, really far to the left…

Left like Obama?

No…fascist.

Left like Russ Feingold?

No…he’s nothing more than a covert member of the Heritage Foundation.

My politics…they run further left than professionals of this ilk, they rumble along similar tracks laid by a Noam Chomsky, an Alexander Berkman or Pierre Proudhon and that being the case, I understand that when it comes to the majority of Americans, when I shake my head thinking everyone’s gone crazy as I examine their belief systems and life choices…I understand my opinions are oft the minority.

Fair enough. I can accept that…

Especially when it comes to the realities of climate change global warming…

I understand that when I look at people who have children, even my own family members and I question such choices, feeling offspring in this day and age is really a whole lot of selfish vanity and lack of control when it comes to biologic impulse…I get that my opinion is in the minority. I know when I see someone purchasing a 3-D television, and I feel that both the cost to purchase it and the energy required to run the thing is morally repugnant, again…I get it, minority opinion.

And again, fair enough.

However…my leftist opinions don’t change the reality staring at this country and the world, at it’s children and that reality is global warming is fucking real and the time is coming soon when no one will have a choice anymore to accept or reject this reality. Flooding, temperatures, sea level rise, storm intensity, heat waves…maybe even new epidemics…all here, or on the way and pretty soon, like in a few years soon, if nothing concrete is in the works, it’ll be too late.

But again…leftist opinion…my leftist opinion.

So, what about the right?

What about God declaring us stewards of the land, about the free market, about myths, ice ages, Palinesque trumpetings and so many other lines of crap from climate deniers…and yes, I include such rightists as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and other pseudo-democrats who attempt token changes in environmental policy that really don’t amount to shit in that mix as rightists…yeah, what about them, what about all of that?

Okay…well how about Paul Douglas?

From a GOP meterologist and businessman:

“I’m going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real. I am a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment, and sound science. I am not a climate scientist. I’m a meteorologist, and the weather maps I’m staring at are making me uncomfortable. No, you’re not imagining it: we’ve clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters, I’m in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up, long-term. It’s ironic. The root of the word conservative is “conserve.” A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly “global warming alarmists” are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.”

And he only goes on from here with further climate denier debunking…

He discusses how believing climate science doesn’t make you a liberal, how Christianity is no defense of being a flat-earther, of how 30 year old “alarmist” predictions from climate scientists are coming true, and faster than expected – one by one…of how capitalism, yes…capitalism can even help be a proponent to alternative energy sources if people would finally stop buying the bullshit from people making money hand over fist from rising gas prices and finally reinvest not only in newer, less destructive forms of energy, but in your own kids’ futures. And of course, he points out how getting responsible when it comes to the environment used to be a Republican thing by way of the National Parks System and the EPA, and it could be again through alternative energy job creation…

That’s right!

Jobs!

And finally, to my Louisiana friends, especially in New Orleans and southwards…to those who understand the environmental situation…grand. Good, what are we going to do about all of this? But to those in climate denial down there…seriously? You realize where you live, right? Rising sea levels and all that? No? Okay, how about this: do you honestly think all those assholes funding the war on science (which in all truth is a war on you) are going to be down on the disappearing Louisiana shores lamenting their houses as rising water makes living in them no longer tenable, or do you think they’ll be on the high ground, with a lot of your money, in gated communities, forgetting to apologize for all the lies they told you while they made that money and screwed your childrens’ futures?

Hmm…I’m guessing gated communities and major cash.

Paul Douglas, in his blog post…he concludes with the following:

“The climate is warming. The weather is morphing. It’s not your grandfather’s weather anymore. The trends are undeniable. If you don’t want to believe thousands of climate scientists – at least believe your own eyes: winters are warmer & shorter, summers more humid, more extreme weather events, with a 1-in-500 year flood every 2-3 years. For evidence of climate change don’t look at your back yard thermometer. That’s weather. Take another, longer look at your yard. Look at the new flowers, trees, birds, insects and pests showing up outside your kitchen window that weren’t there a generation ago.

This is a moral issue. Because the countries least responsible will bear the brunt of rising seas, spreading drought and climate refugees. Because someday your grandkids will ask what did you know…when…and what did you do to help? We’ve been binging on carbon for 200 years, and now the inevitable hangover is setting in. Curing our addiction to carbon won’t happen overnight. But creative capitalism can deal with climate change. I’m no fan of big government or over-regulation. Set the bar high. Then stand back and let the markets work. Let Americans do what they do best: innovate.

We can figure this out. Frankly, we won’t have a choice. But I’m a naïve optimist. We can reinvent America, leaving us more competitive in the 21st century, launching thousands of new, carbon-free energy companies – supplementing, and someday surpassing anything we can expeditiously suck out of the ground and burn, accelerating an already-warming planet. We don’t have to bury our heads in Saudi sand – we’ll never “frack” our way to a sustainable future. It’s time for a New Energy Paradigm. There’s no silver bullet. But there’s plenty of (green) buckshot, if we aim high and point America in the right direction. We need realleadership, and a viable, bipartisan blueprint for inevitable energy independence from President Obama and Congress. Yes, healthcare is important. So is the long-term health of our air, land and water.

There are steps all of us can take today. I own one hybrid, another on order. I bought a home a mile away from my office, to reduce my carbon footprint (and preserve some sense of sanity). But there’s much more I can do. Let’s challenge ourselves to reinvent our own energy ecosystems.”

I know it’s been awhile since I said hello. My bad, but things have been going pretty good so, thanks. I do have a request though and I’ve been thinking about it for a while now.

So, here goes:

Please, I’m begging you, please…can you back away from politics?

I don’t understand the choices you are making. I was raised in a Christian household by Christian parents, but they never let me in on your political predilections. They say that we are judged by the company we keep, well, do you really understand the political hues your friends are painting you with?

I wasn’t raised to perceive you in such terms; you were supposed to be compassionate, concerned for the poor, loving, but your political friends make you look like a mean-spirited, wealthy dick. I don’t think this is your intention, but I was also told you were infallible.

So, I’m confused.

Please help, and I understand the temptation to say, “I work in mysterious ways.” But please don’t do that. This is serious and people are starting to get the wrong idea: Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, Christine Bachman, David Vitter, Glenn Beck…just to name a few, really, a few…there are a lot more, God. Some of them are even saying you told them to run.

Really?

These people seem to blame all the problems of our country on the same people your son seemed to represent, remember the allegory about the rich man, the camel and the needle?

Did you change your mind?

When did you start to hate Mexicans, Muslims and poor people so much, or is that just your political friends…see? That’s why I worry, it’s getting harder to separate you from them cause they keep talking about you all the time, like you talk only to them now.

What’s going on?

And even if you don’t answer, or let me know or give me a sign or something, thanks for the Super Bowl last year. Sincerely, that was really cool, and could you make the Army Corps of Engineers do New Orleans right this time? There’s a lot of people in that town who count on them and you…so, thanks.

Sarah’s back with a new ad for…something? I don’t know…but I still don’t really think that she’ll run for President in 2012 so much as she’ll just want a seat at the table. When she has to actually talk to somebody who challenges her, she doesn’t quite know what to do, or more importantly what to say. This will always work against her, especially in a primary when the people attacking her limited grasp of complex, world issues will be fellow Republicans. Suppose it is possible, but unlikely that she will run as an independent, or find some way to slip out of the primaries, but in either case she is definitely running with the deck stacked against her.

Here’s the ad:

According to the ad, the moms are coming and they’re not wearing lipstick and they are no longer pit bulls, now they are mama grizzlies and they don’t like what’s going on in Washington…but here’s the trouble with this spot…pay attention, and I will be specific as to what it is the mama Grizzlies want:

2. There angry about this fundamental transformation of…something…um, ad never really says that either.

But there are a heck of a lot of white women, and apparently only white women who, they really want…they..well? They sure as hell don’t like it when their cubs are attacked by…something, I think? The Cubs are being attacked left and right by the…the St. Louis Cardinals?

Okay.

So Sarah Palin is putting Washington on notice that white women the country over are really fucking pissed about a lack of commonsense solutions to a fundamental transformation that is slaughtering their cubs.

When Sarah Palin was tapped on the head a couple of years back by McCain, we watched a novice crash and burn anytime she was forced off script, it was fun; between her soundbites and GW’s, it was actually a whole lotta fun. That was a couple of years ago however, and since then she’s been doing speaking engagements, she wrote a book and has spent enough time on Fox News, my concern was she was getting practice, maybe getting better at this whole policy and public speaking thing. Month after month of coaching by informed handlers, staffers, whoever is around her at all times, fine tuning her abilities, keeping her focused.

I mean, with her appearance and down home folksiness swaying too many people already, the one trump card was always that eventually, someday, like when she runs for President in 2012, she would have to hit the grand stage and there, her lack of insight, nuance and general overall understanding of complex themes would be out of the box for all to see, like a piece of lettuce stuck in the smile of that guy at the DMV.

She had to be getting better, right?

Umm, guess not.

And who would have guessed the news personality to expose this would be Bill O Reilly?

Another day in the Gulf of Mexico, another pointed missive from the likes of Sarah Palin. You know, I don’t care much for Obama either, but at least he isn’t just throwing crap out to Facebook. Today she cites her executive experience as making her better qualified to handle the BP Oil Gulf Explosion Catastrophe. This, despite quitting the governorship in her first term. This despite the fact that no sane individual really values much of what she has to say. As expected, Sarah Palin did not make herself available to the press for questions, interviews, or anything else that would have required her to back up anything she might have said to anyone, anywhere at any time….that maverick.

“Pip Pip, Cheerio, who is this person?’

“It’s Sarah Palin, Tony.”

“Sarah who?”

“Palin.”

“She is rather attractive, what, do you think she might be helpful?”

“She ran with McCain.”

“Who?”

“Tony, she’s the one that was the VP candidate last time round, remember, the I can see Russia from my front porch so I have foreign relations experience lady?”

“Oh, that…”

“Yeah.”

“So, do you think she could help?”

“Remember how you said you wouldn’t rest until the Gulf was cleaned up again?”

“Jesus, don’t remind me?”

“So you made a bunch of promises and then you quit, right?”

“Yeah, sure did…”

“She kind of did the same thing….”

So enjoy the article…keeping in mind one question of course.

Why If this horse’s ass could have been so helpful, could have done something to save the Gulf with all of her, ahem, experience at relating to oil executives…why oh why did she wait fifty days to say something…was she just creating suspense?

Bobby Jindal called Kathleen Blanco and kept shrieking “Time Out” over and over into voicemail…

Ray Nagin congratulated Keith Olbermann on being in the last two contestants of Survivor, then tried to fire him…

Sarah Palin held a press conference, showing footage of gremlins and John Lithgow on the oil well before the explosion…

Matt Taibbi wrote an article on how Goldman Sachs secretly planted dynamite at the well…

Institutional Racism won Game 5…

The official British Petroleum YouTube video put up a proper documentation of their cleanup efforts and of course, disabled the comments section about said video…comments can be so…distasteful…reminding once again, this is not about you and what you think, but about the message they wish to imprint…

A song called “Cry For the Fisherman” appeared on Youtube, with a call for donations to help the clean up effort, and comments are allowed….reminding, once again, this disaster is about people and wildlife and Fuck BP…

Oh, and…

One thousand people lost their livelihoods today.

Three hundred brown pelicans lost their lives.

Twenty sea turtles died.

Ten sharks died.

The wetlands gave up another ten miles of land.

New Orleans, once smelling of decay, continued to smell of oil…

No charges have been filed against anyone, anywhere, nowhere, no how…except for some guy who went swimming in the water off Grand Isle.

The British Petroleum Gulf Oil Explosion Catastrophe finally has a new villain and it’s about time because that Tony Hayward and BP stuff was starting to get old. I mean, 44 days…come on, our attention span rarely lasts longer than 44 seconds. We needed someone new, someone we could blame, someone…oh, I don’t know… less profitable, who donates fewer dollars to campaigns, who isn’t so much in the public eye and therefore more unable to defend themselves… but who could it be…? Who damnit?

G.W. Bush? Please, look the other way…besides, isn’t he writing a book or is it reading one?

Anarchists? Too easy.

Ohhhh….I got it, The Radical Environmentalists!

Everyone? Agreed?

Oh, yes…definitely…it’ll work on so many levels…these guys and gals got no money, hell, even the Sierra Club won’t have anything to do with them and they have those kind of weird, squishy names like Meadow and Butterfly and Chad, so nobody would listen to them even if they got on camera somehow. Right, not even MSNBC will talk to these guys so the only face time they get is Facebook, and that’s not something to worry about.

Okay, so we blame it on Radical Environmentalist…but who de we get to lead this charge. Who’s so good at repeating things so endlessly that Americans will actually start to believe this? Well, we certainly couldn’t have someone who puts themselves out there to be questioned or challenged in any way cause this line is gonna be a stretch. I know, who’s doing speaking tours right now? Who doesn’t allow interviews? Oh, and we’re going to need a morally inferior coward with absolutely no scruples who is dumb…but folksy, yeah right… folksy enough to be able to speak to this talking point with some sense of conviction…

What about…well, you know who?

C’mon man, not even she’s this f’ing retar…

Watch it.

Oh yeah, yeah…well I suppose we could ask, think she’d do it?

You betcha…

Okay then…make the call…

Enter…Sarah Palin.

Yep, Sarah Palin has blamed the British Petroleum Gulf Oil Explosion Catastrophe on radical environmentalists. The basic argument (and let’s be honest, when dealing with Sarah, you gotta be basic) is that because them there radical environmentalists tried so durn hard to keep energy production off the land and away from shore, they forced British Petroleum and other oil companies to go to deep sea drilling, something she concedes is less safe. So, those that are trying to save the environment forced the oil companies hand…forced them to do something so dangerous to all, and since they went ahead and did it and it blew up in your face, well…you radical environmentalists have no one to blame but yourselves…

Really.

Seriously, no one else to blame…

But what about –

It is universally accepted now that the reason the oil rig blew was because the oil well wasn’t sealed properly, allowing gas to come up the well, which sparked and exploded and an ongoing investigation by the US Coast Guard and the Mineral Management Service has already concluded, so far, that…despite BP corporate’s assurances to everyone how all was well:

– BP’s engineers struggled to address problems in the days leading up to the explosion of the oil well.

– On the day of the explosion, BP had to be persuaded to do tests that suggested issues with the well’s cement.

– BP sent home a crew that could do a definitive test on the cement without performing the assessment.

– BP apparently insisted on using nitrogen-infused cement at a depth the rig hadn’t ever used before, over Transocean’s objection.

– BP executives have refused to testify.

– This is all set against the backdrop of BP rushing to finish the well.

(Summary from New Orleans Ladder website)

– What should also be added is that BP informed the regulators that only minor leaking would occur if something happened to the oil well and further, British Petroleum never had a clean-up plan in the all too real advent they were wrong.

In Sarah’s Facebook essay she also mentioned how the United States has stricter environmental regulations than the rest of the world and those radicals are forcing the outsourcing of jobs to countries that don’t protect the environment like we do. Umm, the Bush Administration spent the past eight years gutting these protections and restricting any oversight by killing the funding for said oversight of not only this particular kind of well, but pretty much any type of well.

So, for those keeping score, we shouldn’t be troubling with the likes of British Petroleum…we should be attacking Greenpeace. Don’t worry about Halliburton, sue Earth First. Don’t even look towards GW or Transocean, sue the shit out of Mountain and Evergreen and Dale.

Don’t look at anyone who is directly responsible for this oil well blowing up, get the people who just don’t get American values. No, not the Republicans who vote against the interests of the very people who elect them on their platforms of Real America (and they do it again and again)…get the hippies cause them hippies don’t get it at all, they aren’t the real Americans.

Hey Sarah…guess what?

This is my America.

I am an Anarchist, an Atheist, and an American Midwesterner, and not a Midwesterner in some big high fallutin’ city kicking back drinking latte thinkin’ I’m all smart and shit, nope… I live in a dying factory town, a small city your party’s polices got set to stranglin’, and this is my America.

Just because you say it ain’t so, like a thousand of your other lines of bullshit, don’t necessarily make it that way.

It would have to be your America that I question, not whether you are an American or not, but your vision of America.

You say you support the farmer…but your party’s politics put small farms out of business in favor of large Agri-Corporations.

You say you support mom and pop in the general store…but your party votes for tax breaks for big box stores that put mom and pop out of business all over main street.

You say down with Wall Street…but your party is responsible for all the deregulation that led to the mess of the past two years, you know, where everybody lost their homes and pensions? Yeah, that was you guys.

Not only that, but you’re kind of stupid too…

For a living, I help people who are having trouble making it in the America you envision (rich get richer, safety regulations gutted, union protections destroyed) and I have been helping people for twenty years so I have heard a hundred stories from a thousand faces, including hundreds of American Veterans you claim to support. These people aren’t making it, and not because of some bullshit socialist conspiracy and not because they’re lazy intellectuals…it’s because people are complex with many foibles and faults, and maybe they didn’t catch a break at the right time, or maybe they were traumatized, raised shitty, beaten down, started using…whatever. The point isn’t what got them there, it’s how we can help them now, how we can teach them again to do it on their own…in your vision of America, there isn’t any help for people like this, just help for large companies (like British Petroleum). I always hear you say how you love to be out there talking to these real Americans. Yeah, that’s great…I do that too, and then when we’re done talking, I do things to help them.

Out here, in the real America, we believe in calling bullshit on bullshit…

And your line is completely that…

Bullshit.

Might as well drop the whole Radical Environmentalists responsibility thing altogether…nobody’s that stupid…but then again, maybe all you have to do is say it a few more times, or more importantly, just say it louder…